Am I being to picky with DH miles

[acvox24]

Im sitting in Ft Wayne IN a good area more loads than drivers. But I keep getting all these loads that are like 200 miles with a 100 DH. My own personal policy is to turn down any load where the DH is more than 25% of the loaded miles unless it gets me from a bad area to a good area. I totally don,t mine taking a 200 mile load. but with that much dead heading it just kills the profit. Don,t they have anything that accually comes out of fort wayne.

Am I being too picky or is everyone else turning down these loads as well

 

[blizzard2014]

Im sitting in Ft Wayne IN a good area more loads than drivers. But I keep getting all these loads that are like 200 miles with a 100 DH. My own personal policy is to turn down any load where the DH is more than 25% of the loaded miles unless it gets me from a bad area to a good area. I totally don,t mine taking a 200 mile load. but with that much dead heading it just kills the profit. Don,t they have anything that accually comes out of fort wayne.

Am I being too picky or is everyone else turning down these loads as well

What companies are you leased to?

 

[Tennesseahawk]

On something like a 200 w/100 dh, start asking for all miles paid. Worst they can say is no.

 

[davekc]

Freight does come out of Fort Wayne but I don't know your carrier. Take the whole mileage and times it by your rate and tell them you will run it for that. Doesn't seem to be picky. Only you know what it costs to move your vehicle. If it isn't profitable, no point in really bothering with it.

 

[Murraycroexp]

Not too picky. But instead of not bidding and moving to a busier area, on the shorties, I bid (for CV & Spr loads) $1-$1.15 per mile and add double my raw cost for the DH. at a minimum at least. It has worked for me dozens of times. Especially on Sprinter loads. I can haul many of them. Just not the tall ones. I'm in a XCV with 144x52x49 @ 3500#. I took out the bulkhead and cut the front may to the seat frames. I have to scoot my seat up a few inches but still plenty comfortable enough. And no floor plywood at all. I just repaint the floor every 6 months.

 

[purgoose10]

Hopefully your not just going by miles and not figuring revenue. A 200 mile trip with 100 mi dh might pay $4-5oo bucks, so be careful. As was said before if all miles are paid could not only be a good load but put you next to a better load when done.

 

[blizzard2014]

Freight does come out of Fort Wayne but I don't know your carrier. Take the whole mileage and times it by your rate and tell them you will run it for that. Doesn't seem to be picky. Only you know what it costs to move your vehicle. If it isn't profitable, no point in really bothering with it.

It all depends on what company you are leased to. I was leased on to a company that lets drivers go for turning down 200 mile loads. So, sometimes running your business the way you want to can cost you to lose revenue. So I hope that's not the case for this gentleman.

 

[davekc]

It all depends on what company you are leased to. I was leased on to a company that lets drivers go for turning down 200 mile loads. So, sometimes running your business the way you want to can cost you to lose revenue. So I hope that's not the case for this gentleman.

I'm not sure what carrier that would be but I guess it would be a favor in disguise. Length of the load is secondary if regardless of the miles you are breaking even or losing money.
For me personally, I won't move a truck at a loss unless it is for someone to go home or something like that. He doesn't say what type of vehicle so maybe one has to be more flexible in a van, but as mentioned, with a straight, it has to be profitable or we don't run it. Really not a place to compromise unless it is a emergency, helping someone out, or getting someone home.

 

[blizzard2014]

That's a good way to run your business. I'm going to run my new carrier operation in the same way. I'm not going to move loads for 25 bucks profit just to make a driver happy. You have to know what your profit margins are and operate your business accordingly. I have learned a lot from what happened with On Call. I just scoped out an office location in Michigan. Now I need to get the truck and hit it hard next year. I was referring to one of the multi-carrier model companies that let my truck go because my driver refused a 100 mile load for .85 cents per mile. I don't see how a company can say non-forced dispatch and then fire you for turning down short loads. I'd get mad when drivers would turn down short loads, especially when I was paying them a good rate, but I understand why they turn them down. I never punished my drivers for that.

 

[Murraycroexp]

Yeah, at some point a load is just not worth doing. Factor dock time and you're suddenly averaging about 27 miles per hour and $25 per hour. That's fine for local courier work but not fine for a true expeditor.

 

[westmicher]

Never turn down the load, just tell them to pay all miles.

 

[davekc]

I think that vulnerability is more prevalent with vans just because there is so many. As far as what a carrier moves a load for likely depends on the account or whether it is a bid load. Certainly has to be some common sense applied. It is expensive for a carrier to operate just like a contractor. With high fuel and operational costs sky high, the room for compromise gets smaller. Add to that most new dry van straights are running well over a 100k, there is no patience to field a call for cheap freight. If a carrier (mine) was sold recently for 180M, the last thing I want to hear is "we don't have anything in that load".

 

[Moot]

If a carrier (mine) was sold recently for 180M, the last thing I want to hear is "we don't have anything in that load".

It's one thing for a large carrier to bid or give a huge discount to a customer. At 600 to 700 loads per day, they can afford to take a hit because they can make it up on volume. As O/Os and small fleet owners we can't recoup from break-even loads nearly as fast as the carrier; as you pointed out, due to sky high operational costs.

 

[davekc]

It's one thing for a large carrier to bid or give a huge discount to a customer. At 600 to 700 loads per day, they can afford to take a hit because they can make it up on volume. As O/Os and small fleet owners we can't recoup from break-even loads nearly as fast as the carrier; as you pointed out, due to sky high operational costs.

That right there is why I won't do bargain loads. If I want to do bargain loads, I can find those myself without the carrier. I am mindful that smaller carriers might not have that flexibility so one shoe doesn't necessarily fit everywhere. Then again, that is why I wouldn't or couldn't, have a fleet with a small outfit. Either they run well but too cheap, or they have a great rate but sit for extended periods. Just have to find that right balance.

 

[LDB]

Im sitting in Ft Wayne IN a good area more loads than drivers. But I keep getting all these loads that are like 200 miles with a 100 DH. My own personal policy is to turn down any load where the DH is more than 25% of the loaded miles unless it gets me from a bad area to a good area. I totally don,t mine taking a 200 mile load. but with that much dead heading it just kills the profit. Don,t they have anything that accually comes out of fort wayne.

Am I being too picky or is everyone else turning down these loads as well

Would you run the load if it was 250 with 50 DH? For simplicity let's say a dollar a mile loaded so instead of being $200 plus 100 DH miles it would be $250 plus 50 DH miles. The worst they can do is say no.

 

[Murraycroexp]

Would you run the load if it was 250 with 50 DH? For simplicity let's say a dollar a mile loaded so instead of being $200 plus 100 DH miles it would be $250 plus 50 DH miles. The worst they can do is say no.

That's when I'd email "send it" to the broker. That's not bad math for me. But I'm not in a $45k Sprinter or Cargomax either. I admit to have a "simpler" cost structure. For better or worse.

 

[acvox24]

Im with panther driving a CV. .70 plus FSC. usually comes out to around .95 a mile. I don,t have much over head. Not married, no kids, no rent, no mortgage, and my truck is paid off. I know that is pretty much at the bottom of the pay scale, but from talking to other guys that work for higher paying companies. they have a hard time getting loads out of bad areas like out west. I,ve talked to guys who say if they deliver to texas they pretty much have to DH all the way to Memphis or kanas to get a load, because there company will get out bidded on what few loads that are there by the low ball companies like panther. Looking at the panther web page it doesn,t look like anyone else took all those bad loads today either

When I started I took a lot of bad loads but marked it up to a learning experience. Now that I have a pretty good feel for the areas. I have a feeling Im going to be saying no a lot. I mean sometimes it a alright load but where its going I know Ill have to DH a 100 miles or so just to get somewhere to get load offers

 

[acvox24]

Yes I would LDB. In fact coming here it was a load 50 DH 150 loaded. I said no. they called me back and said what would it take for me to say yes. I said 30 dollar bonus, and they gave it to me. Plus I had just delivered and if there was no more load offers, Id have to DH 20 miles to the Detroiter for the night

 

[wvcourier]

Im with panther driving a CV. .70 plus FSC. usually comes out to around .95 a mile. I don,t have much over head. Not married, no kids, no rent, no mortgage, and my truck is paid off. I know that is pretty much at the bottom of the pay scale, but from talking to other guys that work for higher paying companies. they have a hard time getting loads out of bad areas like out west. I,ve talked to guys who say if they deliver to texas they pretty much have to DH all the way to Memphis or kanas to get a load, because there company will get out bidded on what few loads that are there by the low ball companies like panther. Looking at the panther web page it doesn,t look like anyone else took all those bad loads today either

When I started I took a lot of bad loads but marked it up to a learning experience. Now that I have a pretty good feel for the areas. I have a feeling Im going to be saying no a lot. I mean sometimes it a alright load but where its going I know Ill have to DH a 100 miles or so just to get somewhere to get load offers

...........

 

[canesman07]

Considering you have a CV and DH is mostly covered the only real consideration for a small load is A does it take you ta better area and B is it later in the day or early in the morning and C what are the loads like in general where you are located. I have been with panther for 10 years and I never do a load I do not want to do and I seldom negotiate unless I think I can get something extra out of them especially if I have had a load swapped on me recently. You have to run your van like a business not a charity you are not supposed to be benevolent that is for the March of Dimes and the Red Cross.